Saturday, 25 June 2011

was a mere bagatelle compared to some of the journey's I've made so far, but with the 2 days of continuous rain now hopefully behind me, today's destination is likely to be one of the highlights of the trip. Having spent 3 days here on the 2007 tour, I know the potential is very high with 2 main aims, one would be to better the number of 'wildfowl' recorded here, while the second will be to visit the Leake family who showed us such fantastic hospitality last time.

There has been a little development here during the 4 year interim, mainly more accommodation having been built, but there was no problem getting a room for the night which was very comfortable except for the perennial problem. The water here is about 80% sulphur, at least that what it smells like, but everything else about the place is verging on paradise. With the Greyhound arriving at 18:oo and daylight extending well beyond 22:00 there was plenty of time to get reacquainted.

The scenery was just as spectacular as I remembered it, but

just on a cursory look it seemed like reaching anything like the 21 species of 'waterbird' we recorded on this lake alone, was already looking like a tall order.

This small spur to the main lake has been effectively

dammed by a family of Beavers, seen here on the left edge of the water

with a close up of the southern section and the water overspill.

Beaver Lodge

Seems like the Heavy Metal brigade are this far north and neatly altering the message on this skip.

Simple but effective, this film of polythene stops

this!

Some distant shots of 3 Beavers.

Distant Slavonian Grebe.

A flower?

Catching a movement (that I thought might be a Woodpecker) out of the corner of my eye I went to investigate, but could only find this Red-breasted Nuthatch.

When I came to edit the photographs a Northern (Red Shafted) Flicker was seen in the hole.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Scaup

Cedar Waxwing, good numbers of them here and interesting to see how they feed.

On the scarce occasions we see them in UK they are feeding exclusively on 'berries'. Here at this season there are no fruits and seems novel to see how adept they are at 'fly-catching'!

Bufflehead (male)

Bufflehead (female).

Brown-headed Cowbird males).

Brown-headed Cowbird (female) not a great shot, but interesting to see how they 'walk down' the Dandelion stems to feed on the seeds.

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About Me

Born Beeston, Notts 1946, my family moved to Dorset 1959. Joined the Royal Navy age 15 years and 50 days serving 10 years. In frigates firstly then over 5 years in Submarines as a Seaman/Diver, reaching the dizzy heights of Leading Seaman before leaving to join the Merchant Service, working in Ocean Salvage and Harbour Tugs, passenger / cargo ships, trials vessels, etc. Qualified as Mate (Chief Officer) in 1976 and as Master (Captain) in 1978. For my final 20 years of 47 I worked in the Offshore Oil Industry initially on the drilling rig Stena Hunter, then the accommodation barge Borgland Dolphin and finally the Floating Production Platform Buchan Alpha. On the rigs I forged a number of long lasting friendships several of whom shared some of my extensive travels. Setting foot on Caymen, Bermuda, Bahamas and The Azores in March 2013 brought my countries total to 147. The best, undoubtedly, was Antarctica, followed by Australia, Mongolia, Belize, Zimbabwe, China and Madagascar, in no particular order. As for my greatest achievement in life, my 2 beautiful daughters bear witness to that. Love to all our readers, your in my thoughts. Bagsy